How Special Operations Forces Must Meet the Challenges of a New Era
To the commander of U.S. SOCOM, what matters most is whether we solve the problem our nation needs solved.
GEN. BRYAN P. FENTON | MAY 11, 2023
Discussions and debates about how U.S. and allied SOF must become more capable and ready for an era of growing strategic tensions and conflicts are central to this year’s SOF Week conference in Tampa, Florida. For U.S. SOF, the National Defense Strategy priorities of integrated deterrence, campaigning, and building enduring advantages highlights the direction we must take, but it is our people, and partners, who must ensure our thinking, investments, training, and mindset are optimal for the demands of this strategy: to win without fighting when we can and prevail in combat when we must.
Here is our start point for SOF Week. History shows SOF is at its very best when we define ourselves by “how well” we solve extraordinarily complex, wicked, and sometimes lethal problems. Some of these require us to win by fighting, but in today’s environment, the challenges our nation faces globally are often not solved by kinetic power alone.
While recognizing the strengths SOF has always displayed in combat, what truly made SOF “special” historically has been our ability to generate disproportionate strategic effects in highly complex and contested environments via small and uniquely skilled teams. Certainly, in many instances this required our forces to show incredible combat proficiency. What is less well understood by the general public, yet something we must never forget, is not only how well we can deliver precise kinetic force, though that is certainly important; what matters most is whether we “solve the problem” our nation needs solved, and not necessarily whether the solution requires lethal action.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2023/05/how-special-operations-forces-must-meet-challenges-new-era/386216/
